Blog Archive

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Here is a video report from New Orleans are the arrest by the FBI of four men who allegedly were involved in a plan to bug the office there of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. The alleged attempt took place in a Federal Building in New Orleans.

One of the four is Undercover Conservative Filmmaker James O'Keefe, who was at the center of filming ACORN Offices around the country last year which documented questionable activities going on there.

Federal authorities have arrested four men on felony charges for attempting to infiltrate Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office, including one filmmaker who targeted the community group ACORN last year in damaging undercover videos.

Among those arrested was 25-year-old James O’Keefe, the conservative filmmaker, along with Joseph Basel, Robert Flanagan and Stan Dai, all 24. They were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses and attempting to gain access to the Democrat’s office by posing as telephone repairmen, according to a copy of an FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

The complaint said that O’Keefe was waiting in the office when Flanagan and Basel each entered the premises, wearing light green fluorescent vests, denim paints and blue work shirts, tool belts and hard-hats. They informed a member of Landrieu’s staff that they were telephone repairmen and requested access to the main telephone at the reception desk.

At that point, the two men allegedly attempted to manipulate telephones and accessed the telephone closet, saying they needed to work on the entire system. The men, who said they left their credentials in their vehicles, and were later arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service soon afterward. O’Keefe was allegedly involved with planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation, according to an FBI news release.

According to the FBI, the four men could each face up to 10 years and a fine of $250,000 if they are convicted. The case, which is being investigated by special agents of the FBI and deputy marshals with the United States Marshal’s Service, is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.

Michael Madigan, O’Keefe’s lawyer, told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon that he was still unclear exactly what happened at the senator’s office. . . . MORE

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